U.S. stocks finished higher as the Dow approached its all time high of 16,631.60. The index trading on Tuesday as high as 16,559.39.

The S&P 500 index is also not that far away from its all time highs of 1,897.28.

The Federal Open Market Committee began its two-day meeting in Washington. It is likely the Federal Reserve will announce further tapering to its monthly bond purchases in the coming days.

Meanwhile, in the Ukraine front, Russian based Gazprom warned in its latest financial report that additional Western sanctions over Ukraine could negatively impact its gas exports to Europe. Gazprom further hinted it intends to diversify its business and expects to conclude a large deal to carry gas from eastern Siberia to China next month.

U.K. GDP improved to 0.8 percent in the first quarter from 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter but fell short of expectations of 0.9 percent growth.

Redbook Chain Store Sales rose 3.8 percent year over year compared to a gain of 3.7 percent last week.

S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index in February rose 0.8 percent month over month, matching January's 0.8 percent gain and topping the 0.7 percent expectations. Year over year, the index is up 12.9 percent, in-line with expectations of 13.0 percent.

April Consumer Confidence fell to 82.3 from 83.9 in March.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades of Note

Analysts at Bank of America maintained a Neutral rating on American Airlines (NYSE: AAL) with a price target raised to $42 from a previous $40. Shares gained 1.00 percent, closing at $35.51.

Analysts at UBS maintained a Neutral rating on Corning (NYSE: GLW) with a price target lowered to $22 from a previous $22.50. Meanwhile, analysts at JPMorgan maintained a Neutral rating on Corning with a price target raised to $21 from a previous $16.50. Shares lost 0.52 percent, closing at $20.86.

Analysts at Citigroup maintained a Buy rating on Dunkin' Brands Group (NASDAQ: DNKN) with a price target lowered to $54 from a previous $59. Shares gained 0.09 percent, closing at $45.79.

Analysts at Argus Research maintained a Buy rating on Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) with a price target raised to $64 from a previous $58. Shares gained 1.12 percent, closing at $59.63.

Analysts at Sterne Agee upgraded Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) to Neutral from Underperform with a price target raised to $380 from a previous $360. Shares lost 1.69 percent, closing at $361.59.

Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus maintained a Buy rating on Mastercard (NYSE: MA) with a price target lowered to $90 from a previous $91. Shares gained 1.11 percent, closing at $72.03.

Analysts at JPMorgan maintained an Overweight rating on The Carlyle Group (NYSE: CG) with a price target raised to $43 from a previous $39.50. Shares gained 0.38 percent, closing at $34.21.

Analysts at FBR Capital maintained an Outperform rating on Disney (NYSE: DIS) with a price target raised to $96 from a previous $85. Shares gained 1.11 percent, closing at $78.64.

Equities-Specific News of Note

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) officially filed to offer 2017 and 2019 floating-rate notes as well as 2017, 2019, 2021, 2024 and 2044 fixed-rate notes for a total offering size of $12 billion, below the $17 billion the company raised a year ago. Separately, Apple announced that it will begin selling a cheaper MacBook Air with a faster CPU. Shares hit new 52-week highs of $595.98 before giving up gains and closing the day at $592.33, down 0.30 percent.

The government of Iran announced that it has cancelled a $2.5 billion with China National Petroleum (NYSE: PTR) to develop the South Azagedan oil field. The government claimed that the Chinese firm is overcharging and delivering poor quality results. Shares of China National Petroleum lost 0.74 percent, closing at $114.74.

According to Bloomberg, Allergan (NYSE: AGN) is holding talks with Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson to see if either firm has any interest in beating Valeant's $45.7 billion bid that is already on the table to acquire Allergan. Shares of Allergan hit new 52-week highs of $169.29 before giving back gains and closing the day at $165.63, down 0.22 percent.

Target (NYSE: TGT) appointing Bob De Rodes as its new Chief Information Officer who previously held positions with the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense. The company also announced it will introduce chip-and-PIN technology for its REDcard program and will convert payment terminals this year. Shares lost 0.34 percent, closing at $61.97.

TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) announced that its subscriber base has climbed above its 2006 record highs of 4.45 million subscribers. Shares gained 1.29 percent, closing at $11.77.

Disney (NYSE: DIS) reported that it will invest $800 million to add capacity and attractions to its Shanghai Disney resort to become three times larger than Hong Kong Disney. Additionally, the cast for the next three Star Wars films were revealed with Harrison Ford reprising his role as Han Solo. Shares gained 1.11 percent, closing at $78.64.

Grupo Televisa (NYSE: TV) is in talks with Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) to create original content to be streamed on Netflix's services. Shares of Grupo Televisa gained 1.46 percent, closing at $32.62 while shares of Netflix gained 1.80 percent, closing at $319.87.

Actavis (NYSE: ACT) began a lawsuit against the FDA over its recent decision to grant Teva Pharmaceutical the exclusive rights to sell a generic version of Celebrex when Pfizer's patent on the drug expires in May. Shares of Actavis gained 0.46 percent, closing at $197.81 while shares of Teva Pharmaceuticals gained 0.49 percent, closing at $49.56.

Winners of Note

This morning, MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.21, beating the consensus estimate of $0.09. Revenue of $2.63 billion beat the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. Net income for the quarter rose to $108.16 million from $6.55 million in the same quarter a year ago as revenue in Macau grew 26 percent year over year to $941 million and Las Vegas properties benefited from a revenue per room growing 14 percent. Shares gained 8.51 percent, closing at $24.98.

Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ: CRUS) has agreed to purchase rival Wolfson Microelectronics for 278 million British Pounds ($467 million) in an all cash deal. Wolfson, like Cirrus sells similar devices such as amplifiers, converters but also sells HD audio software which Cirrus could use to differentiate its own products. Cirrus expects the deal to close in the second half of the year and will be begin showing positive contributions in the first full quarter after completion. Shares of Cirrus Logic gained 6.59 percent, closing at $23.46.

Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) and Orbital Sciences (NYSE: ORB) have jointly agreed to a $5 billion merger of equals to create a new firm called Orbital ATK. Alliant shareholders will own approximately 53.8 percent of the combined company and will spin off its outdoor sports business to shareholders. shares of Alliant Techsystems hit new 52-week highs of $155.50 before closing the dya at $148.22, up 6.77 percent. Shares of Orbital Sciences also hit new 52-week highs of $34.16 before closing the day at $30.96, up 16.52 percent.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) named Rajeev Suri as Chief Executive Officer. Suri's first order of business is the company's announcement that it will return over 3 billion euros ($4.15 billion) to shareholders with the proceeds from its handset business sale to Microsoft. Nokia also announced that it improved to a net profit of 108 million euros from a net loss of 98 million euros a year ago, excluding the unit sale to Microsoft. Shares gained 5.69 percent, closing at $7.43.

This morning, Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.20, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18. Revenue of $1.77 billion missed the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. Net income for the quarter rose to $133 million from a net loss of $354 million in the same quarter a year ago as the company saw its MedSurg division increase sales by seven percent year over year to $548 million and its rhythm management division saw its sales rise two percent to $524 million. Boston Scientific saw its sales rise eight percent in the quarter with emerging market sales up 22 percent. The company issued guidance and sees its second quarter EPS to be $0.06 to $0.08 and revenue to be $1.84 billion to $1.89 billion. Full year EPS is guided to be $0.77 to $0.82, above previous guidance of $0.75 to $0.80. Full year revenue is guided to be $7.3 billion to $7.5 billion. Shares lost 6.26 percent, closing at $12.73.

This morning, Coach (NYSE: COH) reported its third quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.68, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61. Revenue of $1.1 billion missed the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. Net income for the quarter fell to $190.74 million from $238.93 million in the same quarter a year ago as North American sales fell 18 percent to $648 million and comparable store sales fell 21 percent. International sales rose 14 percent to $441 million while sales in China rose over 25 percent and sales in Japan rose ten percent. Brian Sozzi of Belus Capital Advisors tweeted and offered some appropriate commentary and noted “@Brian Sozzi Having covered #Coach since 2005, never would have expected back then sales would be down 21 percent in a quarter $COH” Shares lost 9.34 percent, closing at $45.71.

This morning, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (NYSE: GT) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.56, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60. Revenue of $4.5 billion missed the consensus estimate of $4.81 billion. Net income for the quarter plunged to a net loss of $58 million from a net income of $26 million in the same quarter a year ago as the company was subject to a $132 million after-tax foreign currency exchange charge in Venezuela. Poor weather in the northeast U.S. also hurt demand resulting in a one percent decrease in tire unit volume. Shares lost 7.72 percent, closing at $25.11.

This morning, 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.15, in-line with the consensus estimate. Revenue of $147.8 million beat the consensus estimate of $145.5 million. Net income for the quarter fell to $4.877 million from $5.883 million in the same quarter a year ago despite product revenue including printers rising 53 percent year over year to $60.8 million. Investors focused on the fact that in the previous quarter product revenue including grew 76 percent in the previous quarter and gross margins fell 60 bps quarter over quarter and 130 bps year over year to 51.5 percent. SG&A expenses rose 65 percent to $48.7 million while R&D expenses rose 164 percent to $17.3 million. Meanwhile, analysts at Piper Jaffray maintained an Overweight rating on 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) with a price target lowered to $63 from a previous $82. Shares lost 9.05 percent, closing at $44.80.

Shares of Gogo (NASDAQ: GOGO) tumbled after AT&T and Honeywell announced that its 4G LTE in-flight connectivity will be available as soon as late 2015. However, analysts at William Blair defended Gogo and noted that the regulatory approval for AT&T and Honeywell could take time. Shares of Gogo plunged 28.61 percent, closing at $13.12.

Earnings of Note

This morning, Eaton (NYSE: ETN) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $1.01, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00. Revenue of $5.49 billion was in-line with the consensus estimate. Net income for the quarter rose to $439 million from $378 million in the same quarter a year ago despite severe winter in North America dragging earnings lower by $0.03. Sales of electric products rose four percent year over year to $1.73 billion, sales of hydraulics rose 3.4 percent to $782 million and sales of electric services and custom designed electrical systems rose 0.2 percent to $1.52 billion. Eaton issued guidance and sees its second quarter operating EPS to be in a range of $1.05 to $1.15, below the consensus estimate of $1.29. The company affirmed its full year EPS guidance to be $4.50 to $4.90, versus a consensus estimate of $4.81. Shares lost 3.15 percent, closing at $72.15.

This morning, LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE: LYB) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $1.72, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73. Revenue of $11.13 billion missed the consensus estimate of $11.17 billion. Net income for the quarter rose to $944 million from $900 million in the same quarter a year ago as the company benefited from a $52 million environmental indemnity settlement. The company noted that its underlying business fundamentals are strong and key raw materials are in abundant supply with ethane tracking natural gas prices. Shares gained 0.25 percent, closing at $90.97.

This morning, Merck (NYSE: MRK) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.88, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79. Revenue of $10.26 billion missed the consensus estimate of $10.44 billion. Net income for the quarter rose to $1.705 billion from $1.593 billion in the same quarter a year ago despite a four percent drop in sales as the company saw an unfavorable impact of patent expiration and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. Sales of pharmaceutical products fell 4.7 percent year over year to $8.45 billion as the company faced generic competition for its allergy and asthma Singular treatment. Consumer care sales fell 4 percent to $546 million while animal care sales fell three percent to $813 million. Merck affirmed previous full year EPS guidance to be $3.35 to $3.53 versus a consensus estimate of $3.45. Shares hit new 52-week highs of $58.86 before closing the day at $58.72, up 3.60 percent.

After the market closed, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.00, beating the consensus estimate of -$0.03. Revenue of $250.5 million beat the consensus estimate of $240.9 million. Shares were trading lower by 9.34 percent at $38.64 following the earnings release.

After the market closed, Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.99, missing the consensus estimate of $1.01. Revenue of $23.69 billion missed the consensus estimate of $23.81 billion. Shares were trading lower by 4.52 percent at $67.80 following the earnings release.

After the market closed, U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.34, in-line with the consensus estimate. Revenue of $4.45 billion missed the consensus estimate of $4.51 billion. Shares were trading lower by 2.24 percent at $25.75 following the earnings release.

After the market closed, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) reported its first quarter results. The company announced an EPS of $0.70, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69. Revenue of $4.26 billion beat the consensus estimate of $4.23 billion. Shares were trading lower by 3.01 percent at $52.90 following the earnings release.